How did you select your online vendor?

[spril4]

I recently proposed to my girlfriend with a ring I bought online. PriceScope was incredibly helpful in learning what to look for in a diamond and setting. THANK YOU! But I was thinking about how I selected my vendor, and a few things that the online diamond business could do better, at least for my transaction.

What are your major criteria for selecting a diamond vendor? And how could that dealer--or the industry as a whole--improve the diamond search and purchase process?

I''ll give my answers to these questions in a follow-up post. What are your experiences?

-Tom

 

[spril4]

Here are my experiences. I wanted to surprise my girlfriend with the proposal--so after a lot of research, I picked a diamond and setting. PriceScope taught me that cut quality is the most important thing to look for--and she loves the fiery and brilliant stone.

I also visited 9 B&M stores in Maryland and Colorado, most of which had aggressive or uninformed sales people, or bad selection (or all of the above)! The others had upscale selections that were out of my price range (like pre-set rings way more than $10,000). Buying online was clearly the way to go. After reviewing the purchase policies, diamond selection, and setting selection of every PriceScope vendor, I bought my ring from Blue Nile for three reasons:

1) BN''s 30-day return policy gave me plenty of time. I purchased it, they received and mounted and shipped the diamond, and I planned a nice romantic proposal to my girlfriend. She had a full week to decide if she really wanted that design. The meager 10-day return policy from most vendors would mean I''d have to propose within a couple days of whatever day the ring arrived. I wanted to plan a romantic proposal on our schedule, not the diamond vendor''s. Blue Nile''s setting selection isn''t great--there are some beautiful rings on the James Allen and Good Old Gold websites--but James Allen gives only 10 days, and Good Old Gold doesn''t accept ring returns at all. It turned out that she loves what I selected. But since I hope she''ll wear her ring for the rest of her life, I had to give her the option to change the setting.

2) Huge diamond selection. Blue Nile seems to have many, many more diamonds than anyone else. For instance, just now I ran a search for strong fluorescent round brilliant diamonds between .75 and .85 carats (any color, any clarity, and so forth). Blue Nile has 29 of these diamonds. The PriceScope search engine seems to have 0. I''m not sure why none of those BN diamonds are in the PriceScope search--the diamond I bought was in PriceScope before I bought it. (Maybe I don''t understand how to do a search properly!)

3) BN''s extremely powerful and easy search engine. I very much like that I could search for fluorescence, since I wanted a strong blue diamond, and rule out anything other than an "ideal" cut. While BN doesn''t allow searching by girdle diameter, moving my mouse over each diamond in the search results gave a popup that let me quickly see detailed measurements. Other vendors either made me scan through a search results table--or even worse, made me click on every single diamond individually to find how big and how fluorescent it is. That would take hours!

I ran an HCA on the dimensions on the GIA certificate, and it came out excellent (1.3). The biggest downside of Blue Nile, though, is that don''t provide any photos, including idealscope, ASET, etc. With GIA''s "diamond dossier", they don''t even provide an inclusion plot. I can see how some purchasers would prefer vendors who get their hands on diamonds and provide these!

I have these questions about buying online:

Why doesn''t any site allow searching or sorting by girdle diameter?
It seems tradition in the diamond industry to focus on carat weight, but as everyone discusses repeatedly in this forum, the meaningful measure for a round brilliant is face-up diameter. I don''t want to pay extra for a too-deep diamond that is over-weighted and looks dull, or one that''s denser than average. Carat weight was irrelevant in my purchase--I wanted to shop for diameter and cut quality. I know websites have to cater to the biggest group of consumers, but I don''t understand why they don''t give any attention at all to searching by girdle diameter.

Why would a site make me contact them to learn the price of a setting?
I didn''t consider any vendor who wouldn''t openly give the ring price, since that made it impossible to evaluate different settings. If I visited a B&M vendor who wanted my phone number before disclosing prices, I''d run away fast.

What do you think?

-Tom

 

[kcoursolle]

I look at quality of stones, prices, inventory, and policies. It also depends what I am purchasing.

For my five stone band I wanted top notch stones, an upgrade policy, and a place that can do custom in-house that I trusted-WF had all of these characteristics and also an inventory of stones that I wanted. For cheaper pieces like my .4 carat pendant I went to BN. I wasn''t concerned about upgrading it because I thought I would eventually put it into an earring or buy another bigger pendant and bluenile had a huge inventory of cheap, but well-cut stones. They didn''t have images, but I was purchasing a smaller and less expensive stone and I didn''t care that much. No matter who I go with I would never buy from someone who didn''t have a return policy. Jamesallen has a nice balance of fantastic inventory, reasonable prices, and an upgrade policy. However, although they have some beautiful stock settings I''m not sure they are the best place to go if you want to get a custom setting from the same place as you buy your diamond from. Goodoldgold.com seems excellent in every way (I''ve never purchased from them), but to me the inventory has never really been there for what I was looking for. I would definitely consider purchasing with them for something high quality and expensive, since they provide a wealth of information, and have great policies.

 

[DiamondExpert]

"Why would a site make me contact them to learn the price of a setting?"...there is at least one excellent reason for not doing this - and it''s not about capturing your phone #/email address - it couldn''t possibly be accurate due largely to the rapid changes in metals prices.

 

[beaujolais]

How did I select my online vendor?


Good Old Gold has the most on-line info. about their diamonds. That works for me. They are also wonderful to deal with. You can tell from their website and videos they go above and beyond.

(btw, setting is almost done, they say)


Whiteflash must be great also. Everyone always seems happy with them. John Pollard contributes some amazing things here and that would make me likely to deal with them.

 

[arjunajane]

How did I select my online vendor?

Good Old Gold has the most on-line info. about their diamonds. That works for me. They are also wonderful to deal with. You can tell from their website and videos they go above and beyond,


DITTO!

 

[ImpatientOne]

Date: 2/19/2008 6:54:06 PM
Author: arjunajane

How did I select my online vendor?

Good Old Gold has the most on-line info. about their diamonds. That works for me. They are also wonderful to deal with. You can tell from their website and videos they go above and beyond,


DITTO!

Yup, me too! I would not hesitate to work with Whiteflash, either, due to their reputatioin here. Both have awesome upgrade policies as well!

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 2/19/2008 8:47:19 PM
Author: ImpatientOne

Date: 2/19/2008 6:54:06 PM
Author: arjunajane

How did I select my online vendor?

Good Old Gold has the most on-line info. about their diamonds. That works for me. They are also wonderful to deal with. You can tell from their website and videos they go above and beyond,


DITTO!

Yup, me too!

me 3 or is it 4...

I have bought from Jon (goodoldgold.com), Wink(winkjones.com), and Gary(diamondexpert.com) and the biggest reason I bought from them is Jon, Wink and Gary.
Id consider Todd(niceice.com) for the same reason.
Id consider Wf if I dealt with Lesley or JA if I dealt with Jim or someone else with the power too make decisions at the companies.
(the sales crew at both are real nice by all accounts but when I decide too buy I want it done like yesterday and sales people slow things down because they aren't allowed to make decisions.)

 

[marmad]

I selected my online vendors by lurking on this forum for many months reading the posts of the regulars then getting a feel for the vendors, that not only sold diamonds but were responsive to their customers and helpful to those that may never purchase a stone from them. My upgrade at that time for my ring was from a vendor that once frequented this forum that had larger diamonds with a cut quality that I could afford at the time which was better that I could purchase at home. Now with an addiction to reading the board and more knowledge I selected a vendor I could trust to view diamonds for a pendant and earrings that would maximize size for my budget while going lower in color and clarity. The vendor, the character of the individual and the quality of diamonds they carry, not to mention their passion for the business makes the difference. In my case, I have to love Wink and those Infinity diamonds. Now I am comfortable enough to say “this is the size, this is the budget, find me a stone” takes the stress out of the equation, which is what I will do to find a better diamond for my ring. Mind you that will be when my husband gets over the shock of the last two purchases and stops rolling his eyes. I also realize that I owe pictures and once I figure that out I will place them in the appropriate forum.

 

[mandas]

Just an FYI. JamesAllen''s return policy according to there site is 30 days not 10. I don''t have my ring yet, but I have been working with Jennifer and she has been a pleasure to work with.

Amanda

 

[Maisie]

I selected my vendor by spending a lot of time on Pricescope. Over the months leading up to me choosing Whiteflash, I had countless conversations with John Pollard (former director of consumer education at Whiteflash) and also read a lot of posts from satisfied (and some not so happy) customers.

This is what I learned:

Whiteflash give you all the info you need to make an informed decision about buying a diamond.
They go the extra mile to make you happy.
Even though things might occasionally go wrong, they do their utmost to make it right.

I have bought 3 diamonds from Whiteflash.